Blood of Ages
by toujourspret
Summary: The story of Miyu, told in the traditional Western style, as a REAL princess. Rated PG-13 for violence and graphic descriptions of gore.


The queen's voice was soft--muted--as she pored her misfortune  
into the ears of the thirteenth fairy. She pleaded with him to forgive  
her her crimes, to leave the unborn one alone. He gave her a   
disdainful sneer as his dark power washed over her. "You'll name the   
girl Miyu, " his demonic eyes alit in cold joy.  
  
"Leave my baby!" the poor mother cried. "Take me instead!"  
  
"I won't, " the thirteenth fairy smiled cruelly.  
  
---  
  
The king never learned of this transaction, nor would he have   
cared, really. The dark magic of the fairies had already woven itself  
into a binding cord around his heart. In this state of denied evil, he  
would have willingly sacrificed his unborn child if only the thirteenth  
fairy would continue to bestow upon him his forbidden time.   
  
To their minions, the king and queen were god-like. They had   
survived hundreds of years, living through wars and plagues, looking   
scarcely a day over thirty-five. Rumours of the king's mysterious wife  
being an enchantress flickered throughout the kingdom, and sordid   
stories of her black magic had hummed in the air of more than a single  
pub more than once. She had appeared out of nowhere, capturing his   
attentions and binding him within her arms. He would not die until she  
had, and it was becoming obvious that she would not.  
  
The peasants were more than reluctant for the queen to give   
birth to the child, then. The thought of another witch being born,   
this time into the royal family, appalled the citizens. Still, the   
king was much loved and the child was half his, so the citizens agreed  
to accept her.  
  
On the day that the child was born, the queen began to cry.   
She cried for herself; she cried for her husband; she cried for young  
Miyu; she cried in blood. The villagers were horrified by the tales of  
their queen draining the blood out of many a castle guard, only to cry  
their blood away, grieving some unknown tragedy.  
  
She cried every day until the end of Miyu's first week, when a   
spectacular ball was planned in hopes of ending her grief. The king   
had been particular in everything involved in the party, making sure   
that it was perfect. The kingdom's finest golden dishes were lain out,  
along with fine wines and heady foods. The queen was adamant that the   
thirteenth fairy was not to be invited.  
  
The ball was pleasant. Princes and princesses from neighboring  
kingdoms were brought in, in hopes of finding a friend for Miyu, and   
the adults enjoyed themselves immensely. After a while, though, it   
became time for the visitors to leave. One by one, they filed by the   
young princess, each wishing a miraculous gift to the child.  
  
Just as the last one stood to lean over the babe, a horrific   
silence drew over the feast. The thirteenth fairy stood, smirking, in   
the archway. His eyes narrowed coldly as he stalked into the room, to  
the silent, pensive baby. He covered her beautiful hazel eyes with   
one hand and gazed pointedly at the queen. "I wish her a task so   
insurmountable that none before her could accomplish it. I wish her   
the feat to banish away the demon-gods of this world, and I take from   
her the right of death until she has completed it. She will live, be   
it happilly or not, until this task is finally accomplished. She will   
have enemies which can kill her, but will remain upon the earth a   
spirit until the quest is finished, " he finished. He spun on his   
heel, and with a final deep, throaty laugh, disappeared into thin air.  
  
"No!" the queen wailed, her scream echoing over the castle   
grounds.  
"Your majesties, " an old fortune teller creaked, "I cannot   
  
take away this plight, but I can assure you that the child will be   
safe, though not happy. She has a long life ahead of her, but it will  
not begin until her prince has come. He will awaken her with a kiss, "  
she cackled, a sinister feeling dripping from the words like blood.  
  
"Oh, my baby..." the queen collapsed in grief at the hag's   
words.  
  
---  
  
The years slowly ticked by and Miyu grew into an inquisitive   
child. Her soft, golden brown hair darkened into a color near black,   
and her wide hazel eyes lightened into a golden sheen. She was often   
seen "haunting" the north tower, where she said that a ghost lived.   
  
Soon it was time for her fourteenth birthday. The castle was  
alive with activity, servants bringing out the finest of linens and   
dishes and other wares to accomodate the visitors from other kingdoms   
that would be coming. As usual, there were to be no children, but Miyu  
was used to it. She had grown up solitary, roaming the castle's dank  
halls and corridors alone as a child. She knew that other children   
existed in other places, but she had yet to see one.  
  
Everyone was so busy that they failed to notice her slipping   
off to the north tower, to visit her ghost. He was tall, and   
breathtakingly handsome, with paler skin than that of the people she   
was used to seeing and blue hair so pale it seemed white. His strange,  
burgundy eyes always seemed to burn into hers as they talked, and his   
hands were thin, bony, white things that looked as though he had clawed  
himself with his long, red nails. She confided her secrets in him, and  
he was her only friend.  
  
"Oh, Ghost!" she cried, her still childish voice ringing over   
the stones as she approached. She smiled as he stepped out from behind  
a door, eyes narrowed in a playful manner. "Mother and Father are   
having a party for me. Would you like to attend?" she asked, reaching  
up for him to envelop her in his embrace, shrouded by the black silk  
garments he wore that draped over his frame, making it unable for her   
to tell except for feel how thin he was.  
  
"I would love to, Miyu, " he replied, a smile hovering over   
his lips. "I won't miss it."  
  
"Ghost?" she asked tentatively, her eyes narrowing slightly.  
"Will you...will you be my prince?" she smiled up at him innocently.  
  
"Why would you want me as your prince?" he asked her, his   
face twisted in amusement.  
  
"You feel safe to me, " she responded, curling in on his   
larger form, nuzzling into his neck. He pressed his face into her   
exposed throat, humming slightly. "What? What are you doing?" she   
asked, trying to turn her head to look at him.   
  
He pushed her head back down to his shoulder, holding her   
there. "I'm not safe. I'm not safe for you at all, " he murmured   
into her ear before licking her neck.  
  
"Ghost?!" she frantically tried to pull away, but he refused   
her. She felt his teeth delicately scratch her neck, followed by his   
long, red nails. Finally, in desperation, she sank her teeth into his   
throat, which had been so tantalizingly close. A rush of salty blood   
poured from him as he gave a strangled gasp and she drew away,   
horrified.   
  
As she sat back, watching him bleed, she licked her lips   
slowly, tasting the coppery substance on her tongue. Her golden eyes   
raked over him more ravenously than any meal she had ever eaten in the  
banquet hall and she lunged, diving upon him and lapping kittenishly at  
the dark liquid staining his skin, his clothes, and the stones beneath  
him. She felt the steady pulse begin to falter and realized what she   
was doing.  
  
"Ghost!" she screamed, her voice cracking at the sight of him  
lying in his own blood, or what little she hadn't drank. The young   
princess stopped, looking at her own wrist, which pulsed with blood.   
She brought her arm to her face and ripped at the tender flesh with her  
teeth, sending droplets of precious red warmth flying around the room.  
She lay her wrist across his mouth and felt him begin to slowly lap at   
it. His motions became stronger until he was firmly sucking on the   
tiny wrist in his grasp and Miyu's head began to swim. She pried her   
arm from him and put it to her own lips, soothing the sting of its   
wound.  
  
"Miyu, " he voiced softly, pulling her closer to him as she   
fainted.  
  
---  
  
The princess had been missing for more than a few hours when a   
harried guard headed to the north tower. Miyu had repeatedly told her  
parents that the tower was haunted, and the guard was a superstitious  
person, reluctant to finally meet a real ghost.  
  
He stepped into the tower, wary of the cold stone walls   
surrounding him. A soft, wet sound was heard, and he paused,   
shuddering with fear. He stepped further into the room and another was  
heard. Finally, he looked down to the stones beneath him, which were   
covered in blood.  
  
The guard ran, shrieking, to the king and queen and told them   
of what he had found. An order of the kingdom's most powerful knights  
was collected to venture into the tower. However, just as they began   
to leave, the court drew silent. Ghost stood, tall, silent, and   
ominous in the door, his black cloak draped around him as usual but   
dripping blood on the floor. The queen took one look at him and   
screamed.  
  
Ghost made a sweeping motion, drawing the cloak's sleeve from   
his shoulder and revealing the sleeping Miyu. "Who are you?!" the   
king demanded.  
  
"My name is not pronounceable in your language. In some   
languages I am Larvae, but the princess calls me Ghost, " he replied.  
  
"Why do you have my daughter?!"  
  
"I came to conquer and vanquish her, only to be conquered   
first. She has bound me to her with her blood, and I cannot leave her   
side, " the figure answered. "Though she is as much mine as I am   
hers."  
  
Suddenly, dark laughter filled the room, waking the sleeping   
princess. The thirteenth fairy appeared in all his malevolent glory,   
eyes shining with evil intent. "You *Majesty*, " he bowed low to   
Ghost, who clutched the princess to himself protectively. "What an   
honor to have the prince of the undead here for such unworthy eyes as   
mine to gaze upon him."  
  
"Undead? Prince?" the queen's terrified gaze swept over the   
pale young man.   
  
Ghost pursed his lips slightly, squeezing Miyu's shoulder   
tightly. He swung her behind him in a brisk move, whipping his arm   
around in front of his face and displaying his deadly claws. "You   
won't cause her harm, " he snarled at the older man.  
  
"No, " the fairy laughed. "No, I think not. You have done it  
for me. You have fulfilled the prophesy of that old hag so many years  
ago."  
  
"No!"  
  
"Prophesy?" the queen and Ghost cried at the same time.   
  
"The child was awakened by your kiss, was she not? And it was  
the blood of your veins and hers that the incompetent guards trampled   
in the north tower, was it not? You came to kill her--murder her--and  
woke her instead, " the fairy sneered.  
  
"She has awakened?" the queen's voice was soft. "I had   
hoped...I was going to suffocate her in her sleep tonight, after the   
party. I...couldn't bear the thought of her awakening...but I am too   
late..."  
  
"Murder?!" the king bellowed, turning on the queen.  
  
"You cease to amuse me, toy, " the fairy stated simply, and   
the king fell just short of his wife. The queen shrieked abruptly,   
then was solidly encased in crystal.  
  
"Mother! Father!" Miyu screamed, and Ghost wrapped his arms   
around her protectively. She moved in his grip to face his chest and   
began to sob.  
  
"Little princess, " the fairy cooed. "I can give you your   
family back. They are but sleeping."  
  
"You...you can?" Miyu asked between sniffles.  
  
"Of course. I can do anything I want to, " the fairy's smile   
broadened.  
  
"How do I...what do I have to..." Miyu's thin shoulders quaked  
in silent sobs.  
  
"You are to hunt down the stray god-demons of the world and   
return them to me. Once you are through, your family will awaken   
again, alive and whole and happy. They will not remember the ages that  
pass, and you will return to the way things are now, " the fairy lied.  
  
"Really?" she asked softly, glancing at her parents' still   
forms. "I'll do it." Miyu turned her golden eyes on the thirteenth   
fairy, pinning him in her gaze.   
  
"Good, " he replied, waving his hand dismissively. Bit by   
bit, the castle began to be overrun by vines. Everywhere, people were   
frozen in giant blocks of crystal. In seconds, the entire castle   
seemed abandoned. As he stood back, the fairy smiled maliciously.   
Shadows appeared on the walls, moving in steadily. Still smiling, the   
thirteenth fairy disappeared.  
  
As he left, one of the shadows swooped in, a bird-like creature  
with long talons. It dove at the frightened girl, scratching long   
welts in her pale arms as she tried to protect herself. Ghost snarled,  
pulling her to him, and extended his own claws, neatly slashing the   
bird-thing. It retreated, mewling in pain, and he scrawled a symbol on  
the wall of the castle in its blood. The creature howled again and   
stood still, as though bound by invisible strings. Ghost murmured a   
few more words in an ancient tongue and it alit like a bonfire, its   
agonizing screeches and the crackle of its skin as it burned so strong   
an image that the child had to turn away.  
  
"Ghost!" Miyu sobbed as the final embers of the unfortunate   
creature died. He clutched her close.   
  
"Miyu, " his voice was sad. "You have a long, painful life   
ahead of you."  
  
---  
  
Years, decades, centuries, millenia passed before the child   
could finish her quest. Through this time she lived on the blood of   
mortals, her stoic companion always by her side. She had long since   
realized that the fairy was a liar; when her father's body had   
decomposed, filling the air with the stench of decay, she learned the  
horrible truth. She was bound into a curse by a monster, one of the   
god-demons himself.   
  
Every day she pressed her ear to her mother's crystal   
sarcophagus, listening to the soft, dull throbbing. It sounded like a   
pocketwatch wrapped in cotton, with the layers getting thicker as the   
years went on until one day, as close as her ear would be to the cold   
stone, she could hear nothing.  
  
Still, she had her quest, and she diligently worked at it.   
Ghost helped her obediently, and she finally finished it.   
  
On the day that she finished it, the thirteenth fairy appeared,  
a cold smile on his face. "I am done, Fairy!" Miyu challenged him,  
her eyes sharp with rage. "Give me my family!"  
  
"You are not done, " the fairy denied. "You have left one   
god-demon: your Ghost."  
  
"Ghost?!" Miyu turned to her companion, eyes wide. The other   
closed his eyes slowly, nodding. He brushed his fingertips along her  
cheek, gathering the tears there.  
  
"You must, " he told her softly.  
  
"I won't!" she replied, but he grabbed her firmly.  
  
"You will."  
  
Taking a deep breath, Miyu stepped back, murmuring the words   
that he had taught her until he began to burn. She quickly gathered   
his spirit into an orb and handed it to the fairy, whose hatred shone   
in his eyes. He gripped her shoulder painfully and covered her eyes  
with a hand, talking. "I give to her the pain of regret, the anger in  
being so easily fooled, the wish for death...and the power of having   
it, " his eyes narrowed in humor and he removed his hand, laughing at  
the dawning look of horror and realization on the girl's face.   
  
Miyu touched her lips gingerly, feeling the blood of ages flow  
over them. Her ears rang with the terrified screams of those she had   
fed from, and flames licked at her skin, the pain of every god-demon   
she had sealed and given to the fairy. With a cry, she fell onto the   
stone floor of the castle, which had long since decayed and fallen to   
pieces. She looked up at the fairy, her eyes pleading for mercy, but   
met his cold gaze. In his hand, he offered her a dagger, and she took  
it, unsheathing the metal and dropping its casing on the ground.   
  
With a defiant glare at the fairy, she drove it into the ground  
between the stones, feeling its blade break between them. "I'll never   
be your slave again, " she spat at him, eyes filled with rage. The   
fairy's clothes began to smoulder, and he frantically tried to pat the  
flames away. "I won't kill myself. It's what you want me to do. I've  
done that too long, " Miyu's child-like voice held a bitter, aged tone  
to it. She laughed as the fairy looked at her in dawning fear before   
bursting into flames.   
  
Miyu drew the fairy, the true final god-demon, into an orb and   
smashed it. 


End file.
